Part 4 (2/2)
Armand shook his head. ”Never a word; neither to-day nor for many days.”
A faint frown showed between her eyes. ”Didn't he mention to you, this afternoon, the matter of the Succession?”
”No.”
She sat up sharply. ”It can't be he didn't--”
The Archduke dropped on the floor at her feet and took her hand. ”I a.s.sure you, Dehra, the King didn't speak a single word to me on such a matter.”
”No, no,” she said, ”you don't understand. I mean it can not be he didn't make the decree.”
”The decree!” Armand exclaimed, though he knew well there was but one she would refer to; and his pulse bounded fiercely and his face grew very hot.
”Yes, dear-the decree-that would have made you Heir Presumptive-and now King.”
”And you think it was drawn?”
”I am sure of it.”
”The King told you so?”
”Not directly, but by inference. I came upon him late last night in his library, with the Laws open before him and a pen in his hand; and when I ventured to voice my curiosity, he smiled and closed the book, saying, 'You may see it to-morrow, child; after I have told Armand.'”
”Doubtless he intended to tell me after the review.”
The Princess leaned over and put her arm around his neck.
”And now you are the King, dear; as he had always intended you should be,” she whispered. ”Thank G.o.d, the decree was made in time.”
For a while Armand toyed with her slender fingers, and did not answer. Of course, she was right:-it was the decree they both had been hoping for so earnestly, but which neither had dared mention to the King. And now, when it had come, and in such fas.h.i.+on, was it really worth the while. Worth the turmoil and the trouble, and, may be, the fighting, that was sure to follow his a.s.sumption of the royal dignity. Had Frederick lived to proclaim the decree and to school the Nation into accepting him as his successor, the way would have been easy and well a.s.sured. But it was vastly different now-with Frederick dead, the decree yet to be announced, and few, doubtless, of those in authority around him, to be depended on to aid him hold the throne. Dalberg though he was, and now, by birth, the Head of the House, yet he was a foreigner, and no people take kindly to a foreign King. Frederick had died too soon-another year--
And Dehra, bending down questioning his abstraction, read his face and understood his thoughts.
”Come, dear,” she said, ”the crisis is here, and we must face it. Dismiss the idea that you're a foreigner. Only you and Lotzen and I are familiar with our Laws. You forget that the people do not know it required a special decree to make you eligible for the Crown; and to them you have been the next King ever since you were proclaimed as Hugo's heir. And surely they have shown you a rare good will, and an amazing preference over the Duke. He has spent his whole life in cultivating their dislike; do you fancy it won't bring its harvest now?”
He had turned and was watching her with an indulgent smile. It was sweet to hear her argue so; to see her intense devotion to his cause; her pa.s.sionate desire that he should sit in her father's place and rule the ancient monarchy. And at her first words, and the sight of her loving eyes and flushed cheeks, his doubts had vanished, and his decision had been made. Yet, because he liked to see her so, he led her on.
”But what of the n.o.bility,” he objected; ”in Valeria they still lead the people.”
”True,” she answered instantly, ”true; but you forget again that the n.o.bles are sworn to maintain the Laws of the Dalbergs; and that for centuries none has ever broken faith. No, no, Armand, they will be true to their oaths; they will uphold the decree.”
”Don't you think, dear,” he smiled, ”you are making it rather too a.s.sured? If the people are for me (or at least are not for Lotzen) and the n.o.bles will abide by the Laws, nothing remains but to mount the Throne and seize the sceptre.”
”Just about that, I fancy,” she replied.
”And, meanwhile, what will Lotzen be doing?”
She frowned. ”Whatever the Head of his House orders him to do. As a Dalberg he is bound to obey.”
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